Temperature Coller for Rapid Cooling and/or Rapid Freezing of Products to be Stored at Low Temperature for Domestic Use

ABSTRACT

Temperature cooler for domestic use for rapid cooling and/or freezing of products to be stored at low temperature, which is provided with an insulated compartment contained inside a support structure provided with a door able to removably close an opening of the compartment. The latter has, operationally associated with it, a ventilation unit and a cooling plant, the latter being equipped with a condenser having a plurality of fins arranged in the vicinity of the front wall of the cooler. According to the invention, a movable flap is envisaged, being mounted on the support structure on a front wall thereof for removable closure of the area occupied by the fins of the condenser. The flap can be actuated by means of actuating means so as to move between an operating position, where it is raised from the fins and allows the intake of air, and a non-operating position, where it is arranged so as to cover the fins.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention concerns a temperature cooler for rapid cooling and/or rapid freezing of products to be stored at low temperature.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The coolers in question conventionally use a powerful refrigerating plant capable of performing the rapid cooling or rapid freezing, to the core, of the food products introduced into an insulated compartment.

The refrigerating plant and the compartment are generally designed with dimensions such as to ensure the so-called “core” cooling of a food product roughly from a starting temperature of about 70° C. to a temperature of about 3° C. in a time period of no more than 90 minutes. Similarly the refrigerating plant and the compartment generally have dimensions such as to ensure core freezing of the said product to a temperature of about −18° C. in a time not greater than about 4 hours. The power levels installed are consequently considerably greater than those envisaged in conventional refrigerating plants intended for the conservation of the refrigerated or frozen product.

In particular, plants with evaporators, fans and relatively large-size condensers for circulation of large air flows are used.

Normally these coolers are intended for collective catering services, such as restaurants, refectories and food or pastry workshops, where the size of the support structure of the cooler is relatively unimportant. However, they improve to such an extent the conservation capacity of the food products that there has also been a demand for them in smaller environments, such as domestic environments.

Being able to achieve the very rapid core cooling of cooked food allows in fact the conservation thereof to be prolonged, while at the same time preventing the proliferation of bacteria which, as is known, alter very rapidly the organoleptic properties of the fresh products.

In a domestic environment, however, there exist spatial and aesthetic requirements which are not considered to be important in the kitchen of a restaurant or a company or hospital canteen.

For such an environment, in fact, these coolers would need to be built into the furniture of the kitchens in such a way as to occupy little space and not negatively affect the design thereof.

More particularly, in this context of domestic or semi-professional use, the compressor and the condenser are, as is known, preferably positioned above (or below) the insulated compartment, while the evaporator with the associated fan are preferably positioned inside the compartment itself.

Adopting this constructional criterion penalizes in particular the aesthetic appearance of the cooler since the fins of the condenser are arranged visibly in the front part thereof in the manner of partition from the external environment so that they are passed through by the air sucked in by a fan situated between them.

In particular, the presence of these fins is not very acceptable in modern kitchens where attention to the design is increasingly appreciated and where the aesthetic design requirements must be increasingly independent of technical and constructional requirements.

Moreover, the need for hygiene, in particular in such a domestic environment, is not compatible with the visible arrangement of the fins on which it is in fact easy for dust to settle or dirt to collect owing to their broad surface area.

Temperature coolers of the known type are unable to satisfy the market requirements, such as those typically of a “family” environment and those for example of a small food workshop, since they excessively impair the aesthetic appearance of the furniture inside which they are fitted.

In this situation, the main object of the present invention is to provide a temperature cooler which is able to satisfy, on the one hand, the requirements typical of the dimensions associated with built-in furniture, without adversely affecting the thermotechnical performance, and allow at the same time a configuration of the cooling plant able to satisfy the most demanding aesthetic and hygiene requirements.

A further object of the present invention is to provide a cooler which is constructionally simple and inexpensive to produce and operationally entirely reliable.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The technical features of the invention, in accordance with the abovementioned objects, may be clearly determined from the claims below.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Other features and the advantages the invention will emerge more clearly from the detailed description which follows, provided with reference to the accompanying drawings, which show a purely exemplary and non-limiting embodiment in which:

FIGS. 1 and 2 are partially sectioned side views, with some parts removed so that other parts are more clearly visible, of a temperature cooler constructed in accordance with the present invention and shown with a flap arranged in two different operating positions;

FIGS. 3 and 4 show a view, on a larger scale, of FIGS. 1 and 2, respectively;

FIG. 5 shows a front view of the cooler according to the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

With reference to the accompanying drawings, the temperature cooler according to the present invention has been denoted in its entirety by 1.

The support structure 2 has a substantially box-like form and is provided with facing side walls L,L′, with facing front and rear walls A and P, respectively, and with facing top and bottom walls S and I, respectively, the latter wall optionally being provided with support feet.

The support structure 2 contains internally an insulated compartment 4 inside which an access opening removably closed by a door 6 is formed.

The compartment 4 is also defined in a conventional manner by an end wall, facing the opening, by a pair of side walls, by a ceiling and by a base. The side walls have, formed in them in an entirely conventional manner, guides for supporting a grille in turn intended to support trays, pans or other containers for the food to be cooled.

The cooler comprises a ventilation unit and a cooling plant which do not form the subject of a specific claim.

The compartment 4 has, arranged above it, a part of the cooling plant composed of the compressor 3 and the condenser 5.

The latter is provided with a plurality of heat exchange fins 7 which are arranged in the vicinity of the front wall A of the cooler 1 and are passed through by a flow of air sucked in by a first electric fan 11 situated behind the condenser 5 immediately adjacent to the fins 7.

In accordance with a possible embodiment shown schematically in the accompanying figures, a chamber 9, indicated by broken lines in FIG. 1, is formed, with a housing, inside the compartment 4. This chamber 9 is separated by partition 10 into two parts, one which houses an evaporator 12 and the other one which houses an electric fan 11′ able to force the air of the compartment 4 through the evaporator 12 in order to cool or freeze the products.

The electric fan 11 is designed with dimensions suitable for the air flows required in a temperature cooler, in the case in question for example for a flow of about 500 m3/h. The refrigerating plant is similarly designed, in relation to the dimensions of the compartment, with an electric compressor having a power, for example, of about 500 Watt.

According to the idea forming the basis of the present invention, the cooler 1 comprises a movable flap 13 which is mounted on the support structure 2 along the front wall A so as to removably close the front area occupied by the fins 7 of the condenser 5.

The flap 13 is actuated by actuating means 14 described in detail below so as to move between an operating position 15, shown in FIGS. 1 and 3, where it is raised from the fins 7 of the condenser 5 so as to allow the intake of air, and a non-operative position 16, shown in FIGS. 2 and 4, where it is arranged so as to cover the fins 7 when operationally no air intake is envisaged, for example when the cooling plant is not functioning.

In greater detail, preferably the movable flap 13 has the form substantially of a parallelepiped with a rectangular front side and is hinged frontally on the cooler 1 on its upper side 17 so as to rotate rotatably about an axis Y parallel to the front wall A of the cooler 1.

The actuating means 14, mentioned above, comprise at least one arm 18 having a first end 19 connected to the movable flap 13 so as to cause raising or lowering thereof about the axis Y, and a second end 20 connected to a cam 21 actuated by a motor 22.

As can be easily seen in FIG. 3, the first end of the arm 18 has, mounted thereon, a magnet 23 for connection to the inner surface 24 of the movable flap 13 which is specially made of treated steel or some other metal able to be attracted by a magnet. The magnet 23 is preferably formed by two rings of magnetized neodymium (or other treated ferromagnetic material) supported on the first end 19 of the arm 18 by means of a fork member so as to be free to rotate in contact with the inner surface 24 of the flap 13 about an axis Y parallel to the axis Y of the said flap 13.

The presence of the magnet 23 ensures a reliable connection of the arm 8 to the flap 13 so as to cause the movement of the latter and at the same time allows the flap 13 to be raised completely, separating it from the arm 18, so that it is possible to clean behind the flap 13 itself the corresponding fins of the condenser which require periodic cleaning and maintenance.

Advantageously the end-of-travel positions are ensured by a switch 25 which is operated directly by the profile of the cam 21 on which it rests by means of a lever 26.

The flap 13 forms in a non-operative position a continuous surface with the door 6 of the compartment, which is in an adjacent position underneath the flap 13. This allows the cooler 1, once it has been designed with its support structure suitable for built-in mounting inside a piece of furniture, to be incorporated in an aesthetically pleasing manner in a kitchen environment, in particular forming visible surfaces which are substantially flat.

The support structure 2 may for example be designed with dimensions suitable for possible built-in mounting inside kitchen furniture, for example with a width L of 560 mm and a depth P of 549 mm. The compartment 4 with the abovementioned dimensions allows the core cooling, to a temperature of about 3° C. in a time period not greater than about 90 minutes or core freezing to a temperature of about −18° C. in a time period not greater than about 4 hours, of a food product which has an initial temperature of about 70° C. These performance characteristics distinguish a temperature cooler from the normal refrigerating apparatus intended for the more straightforward storage of the product in a refrigerated environment.

The invention thus conceived therefore achieves the predefined objects.

Obviously it may also assume, in its practical embodiment, forms and configurations which are different from that illustrated above, without thereby departing from the present scope of protection.

Moreover all the details may be replaced by technically equivalent elements and the dimensions, the forms and the materials used may be of any nature according to requirements. 

1-10. (canceled)
 11. Temperature cooler in particular for domestic use for rapid cooling and/or rapid freezing of products which are to be stored at low temperature, which comprises: a support structure having a substantially boxlike form, with side, front, rear, top and bottom walls; an insulated compartment contained inside said support structure and provided with an access opening removably closable by means of a door constrained to the support structure along the front wall; a cooling plant provided with at least one evaporator, a condenser and a compressor; said condenser comprising a plurality of fins arranged in the vicinity of said front wall and passed through by an air flow drawn from the outside; wherein it comprises a movable flap which is mounted on said support structure along said front wall for removable closing of the area occupied by the fins of said condenser and able to be displaced by means of actuating means between an operative position, where it is at least partially raised from said fins allowing the intake of the air, and a non-operative position, where it is arranged so as to cover said fins.
 12. Cooler according to claim 11, in which said movable flap is hinged frontally on said cooler so as to rotate rotatably about an axis parallel to said front wall.
 13. Cooler according to claim 11 or 12, in which said actuating means comprises at least one arm with a first end connected to said movable flap and with a second end connected to a cam actuated by a motor.
 14. Cooler according to claim 13, in which the first end of said arm has, mounted thereon, a magnet for connection to the inner surface of said movable flap.
 15. Cooler according to claim 14, in which said magnet is formed by one or more rings of magnetic material, in particular magnetized neodymium, able to rotate on the inner surface of said movable flap, remaining reliably in contact with the said surface by means of the force of attraction of said magnet.
 16. Cooler according to claim 14, in which the inner surface of said flap is made of a metallic material able to be attracted by a magnet.
 17. Cooler according to claim 14, in which said actuating means comprise at least one switch able to define at least one end-of-travel position in the movement of said flap.
 18. Cooler according to claim 11, in which said flap forms in said non-operative position, a surface which is substantially continuous with the door of the compartment which is in a position adjacent to the flap.
 19. Cooler according to claim 11, in which said support structure is designed with dimensions suitable for built-in mounting.
 20. Cooler according to claim 11, in which the refrigerating plant is designed with dimensions suitable for performing the core cooling to a temperature of about 3° C. in a time period not greater than 90 minutes or the core freezing to a temperature of about −18° C. in a time period not greater than 4 hours, of a food product having an initial temperature of about 70° C. 